cum grano salis — nobody likes a clever bastard

We had a bunch of fresh hot peppers from the Ministry of Peppers at the North Branch of our farm and decided to make some hot sauce. It’s probably the best way to preserve their fresh flavor. Plus, I am addicted to hot things. ;)

We used most of our habaneros for the base flavor and their pep; however, they are kind of a one trick pony when it comes to flavor. I find them a little boring after a while, so we added some arbols, jalapenos, and cayennes to fill it out.

Habanero Delight Hot Sauce

Ingredients

Equipment

• Goggles
• Gloves
• N95 (or higher) mask
• Blender
• 3 quart sauce pan

Procedure

The mask, gloves, and goggles are optional. You will survive without them, but you will be uncomfortable. You will also experience random bouts of burning hell after touching your face each time you find something else that you have no idea how you contaminated.

1. Chop all of the benign ingredients.
2. Put on the mask, goggles, and gloves.
3. Chop the peppers.
4. Wash all of the utensils and work surfaces with hot water and soap.
5. Remove the gloves and throw them away.
6. Remove mask and goggles.
7. Sweat onions and garlic in the oil with the dried arbol peppers in a 4 quart sauce pan.
8. Add carrots, water, and salt to the pot and simmer until the carrots are soft.
9. Add cumin, cilantro, parsley, and brown sugar to the pot and stir in.
10. Put habanero, jalapeno, and cayenne peppers into blender and then top with the contents of the pot.
11. Puree until smooth and uniform.
12. DO NOT open the blender lid.
13. Put the mask and goggles back on.
14. Heat vinegar and lime juice in the sauce pan until boiling.
15. Open the blender lid (it’s okay now) and pour the puree into the sauce pan while stirring.
16. Simmer for 5 minutes.
17. Turn off heat, place lid on sauce pan, and remove your protective gear.
18. Put sauce into sterile containers as soon as possible. If it is still steaming, you may want the goggles and mask again if you are sensitive to the fumes.

Notes

This makes a lot of hot sauce. If you don’t think you will be able to go through or give away 2 quarts of this, do a little math. If you’re not in the mood for math, get some jars or little bottles and pack it up. It makes a great gift!

You can use a less vinegar if you want a thicker sauce. As low as 1 1/2 cups is probably okay. I really wanted to use some molasses instead of brown sugar, but I didn’t have any. If you have some, you can thicken it up with that. You can also add more salt if you like that, perhaps up to 1 1/2 tbsp.

Habanero Delight Hot Sauce by cum grano salis — nobody likes a clever bastard, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.